Power and Change (Complete)

The staircase was long and winding, the flickering light of the torch the only thing holding off the darkness. As they traveled downward the better the demon started to feel, even from here, the power radiating from the well gave her a high.

Finally after a long ten minutes of decent the two came out into an average sized room. It was circular and in the middle a round grate covered a hole in the stone. Colorful ever changing tendrils of light licked out of the grate, glowing and moving before sliding back in again. The entire room was lit by this glow, the light dancing in a rainbow across the walls. Five stone pillars surrounded the grate, evenly spaced about ten feet apart from each other.

There were shelves carved into the walls around the room, housing many different artifacts from stones to jewels to books and fabrics. The most impressive was probably the showcase across the room which held her armor on display. Gleaming gold and silver in the shimmering light, the set was certainly impressive. Fit for a warlord, they were slightly battle worn with slight gouges in the metal plates that covered her wing. It saw the worse of attacks since she used it as one would a shield.



Breathing in, the warlord's eyes started to glow yellow, burning in the shallow light as the power rushed through and around her. It was thick in the air, intoxicating.

Taking a seat on a stone bench, the demon laced her fingers together. "Only two people in this realm know how to get into this room. Halizar and myself." Her glowing eyes met the scouts. "These are the last moments of your human self. If you have any questions, ask them now."

The demon raised a brow, snorting. "Of all the questions to ask. You're interested in channels? How fascinating." Cocking her head to the side she thought, absentmindedly starting to unbraid her hair. "To understand channels you'll have to understand how my species works. That right there..." She pointed to the glowing grate in the middle of the room. "You are looking at power. Pure raw, power. It runs under the ground and all demons draw their energy from it. That is what gives us our power. When we pass out of our plane we are cut off from it completely. Therefore we slowly start getting weaker. BUT the upside to that is that when we die our soul has no power stream to return to so it just returns to our body. That's why demons on the human plane that don't use channels are immortal. They can't die. Of course they slowly over a century lose their power."

Now that her hair was loose she ran her hands through it, using her claws like a comb. "Using a channel will guarantee you will keep your power. It is a direct channel to the power stream and you will never grow weaker. The downside, as you know is that your soul attaches itself to it. While you have the channel it will return your life to you if you die, keep you immortal on the human plane. But if you lose it, your soul will no longer return to your body. You'll be dead forever."

Crossing her ankles she continued speaking. "As for why I agreed to this....I want to cause those people pain. And how better to do that then change there precious little scout into something that they hate?" She grinned, her fangs sharp and gleaming in the light. "Somehow they can always excuse you of your actions because you're one of them. But they won't be able to do the same when you're mine. How it will hurt them to have to fight one of their own?"

The warlord laughed for a moment before her face became very serious. "You're not going to back out. I told you. Your last chance to run was on your plane. You're either exiting this room a demon, or I'm going to kill you, simple as that.

She took a breath. The scout couldn't appreciate the power here...or what this room meant to demons. Sure, the light the well emitted was pretty to look at, but the magic in the air was so thick the demon could near taste it. It was like a drug.

"As for a channel, it's up to you. I've told you the pros and cons."

"To be honest. I have no way to tell you that. All I know is the difference in how demons and humans behave. I CAN tell you that you'll need to kill. You'll get this feeling in your gut that won't go away until you sink your blade into the nearest person." She snorted. "Most people think that I don't feel. But I can feel sadness and regret. I don't think....to the extent of your race though." It had taken her a long time to admit it to herself but she did have a weakness in her emotions. Anger, fear, sadness....but not like humans. It was there...but not developed.

Standing, she flared her wing, stretching is slightly before folding it comfortably. "I considered not warning you about this but I think I'll be nice today." She spoke as she walked across the room, picking up a leather bound book from the shelf....the leather having been cut and hardened from the wings of demons centuries past. "This won't be fun for you. Halizar is strong, his will is like steel. But after about half an hour it had even him screaming in pain."

Thumbing through the pages, her eyes scanned the strange written language until she came to the passages she needed. "You should pray now that you pass out."

"The pentagram is just used as a power catalyst. There really is nothing demonic about it. It just makes the flow a little easier. That's why it's used in spells."

The demon set the book down on the stone bench circling the room before stepping to the middle where the grate was, motioning for the scout to join her. "The chains....are for you." She ran her tongue over a fang before continuing. "Like I said. This is going to hurt and you're going to want to escape the power flow any way you can. But if you leave before the spell is finished there's no telling what'll happen to you. You might die...or worse..." be trapped in some sort of mutated form....warped and in pain....

"Don't worry, I had to do it to Halizar as well, even he didn't have a strong enough will to not try and escape. As soon as the spell is over, I'll remove them." Des really wasn't very good at comforting people.

Dried blood, the color of rust still clung to the shackles from when her white haired companion had tugged at them furiously.

The warlords face actually softened for a moment, her brows drawing together. "If there is anyone who understands what it feels like to be tortured you're looking at her." The demon opened her arms, showcasing the hundreds of thin white scars covering her body. "Why to you think I hate being touched?"

With a sigh she raised one hand to place it over her heart. "By my name and my soul, I Destael, Red warlord swear that I will do nothing to you here but make you a half demon, our original agreement." When a demon swore on their name and their soul it was literally impossible to go back on their word.

"Now come here. Let's get this over with." She was getting impatient. This girl really was a loose cannon. Perhaps she was right with her initial thoughts that this was a really bad idea. Starfire had no purpose, she was erratic and that would make for a dangerous demon.